The Sports Secretarial Address was held at 10 PM on March 24, 2021, as a precursor to the Sports Secretary Elections. All General Body Members (GBM) were invited to this meet.
Siddharth Malik, ex-captain of the basketball team, was contesting for the post of Sports Secretary of the 2021 Sports Union Council. He began by introducing himself, talking about his sports journey in BITS over the years, listing his achievements in the sports circuit, and speaking to what made him a viable candidate for the Sports Secretary position. He then went on to elaborate on the various changes he would like to make if elected.
These included:
- Extending the GymG timings to facilitate flexibility
- Getting temporary coaches for sports camps
- Designing an inventory management portal
- Engaging people on social media through e-sports and challenges
- Increasing the broadcasting of BOSM matches to improve outreach
- Forming a Sports Executive Committee (SEC) to overlook the management of the inter-BITS sports league and introducing more rewards and incentives for iBOSM performance to increase participation
- Installation of cricket practice nets
- The appointment of one permanent health centre trainer for proper training of the powerlifting team and the GBM
- The allotment of tables and chairs permanently for chess practice
The GBM and members of the Sports Council were requested to post their queries while the Sports Secretaries, CoSSAc, and SFC questioned Siddharth on his address and manifesto.
EXTENSION OF GYMG TIMINGS
Siddharth was first questioned on his manifesto point regarding the extension of GymG timings. Currently, the timings are 6:00–8:30 AM and 4:30–8:00 PM. When asked for a reason for the extension, Siddharth said that since the facilities are occupied by the sports teams most of the time, the GBM did not get the opportunity to improve their skill set, which directly affected their participation in sporting activities. He further went on to say, ‘GymG extension can help a team member improve their skill set for a sport.’ He said that he would prevent teams from occupying facilities even more due to timing extensions by ‘properly managing all the slots, talking to the captains, and putting up notices’.
OUTSTATION ONLINE TOURNAMENTS
His manifesto point about organising outstation online tournaments was questioned next. Siddharth said that he had planned to initiate some challenges and e-sports competitions. When asked about what he was going to bring to the table, as e-sports and challenges had already been tried and tested, Siddharth replied that he had planned on increasing the number of sports and challenges conducted.
INTER-BITS SPORTS COMPETITIONS
Siddharth stated that he felt there was ‘a need to integrate the three sister campuses through sports’. Having observed the slowdown of sporting activity after BOSM, he elaborated on his plan to conduct the inter-BITS Sports League throughout the year, assigning three sports to every month. He said that his plan to conduct a separate event for just three teams per sport would provide first- and second-year students with ‘more official match time and help them gain experience.
A Sports Council member suggested that it would be better to have one specific event at the end of the year instead of spreading it over multiple months. In response, Siddharth explained that the main goal was to distribute sporting activity throughout the year, as the accommodation of about 600–700 people on campus would be logistically tougher for one specific event.
BROADCASTING BOSM MATCHES
Siddharth was asked to elaborate on his manifesto point, which involved the broadcast of BOSM matches and explain its role in increasing outreach and participation. He replied by drawing attention to the fact that ‘ our generation ’ is active on social media, and hence, BOSM could be marketed by broadcasting matches.
He explained how he had planned to execute this idea in phases. The first phase would require contacting Instagram and Facebook influencers and asking them to share content for outreach. The second phase would be to appoint a volunteer from every team to stream BOSM matches from the particular field. The matches would be broadcast live, as well as recorded and uploaded to YouTube by DVM. He suggested that the matches could be streamed through phones or cameras provided by DVM. If necessary, cameras could also be rented from Pilani Studios for ₹2000 per day. Many concerns were raised about the technical aspects of broadcasting, the cost and budget, and how many viewers the broadcast would reach.
HIRING OF COACHES
Siddharth was asked about the hiring of coaches. He explained how the Institute is ready to provide approximately three lakh rupees in funds for temporary coaches for sports camps for the GBM. He added that he had conversed with the Chief Warden regarding the same, albeit without any written confirmation. Siddharth further explained the difference between the BOSM coaches and these temporary coaches—BOSM coaches are responsible for training the teams for BOSM while these temporary coaches would try to ‘improve the sports culture’ of BITS Pilani.
SPORTS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Siddharth was then asked about the SEC, which he had planned to introduce, and how its duties would be different from that of the Sports Council. He said that the SEC’s duty would be to instil ‘rivalry’ amongst residents of the hostels, ‘micromanage’ the teams participating in BOSM, and increase participation of the GBM in BOSM; the Sports Council would only organise the tournaments. Siddharth plans to have three members working under him in the SEC, along with the Hostel Sports Representatives, to bridge the gap between the fifteen Hostel Sports Representatives and the four members of the Sports Council. An SFC member commented that it did not make much sense that three SEC members would bridge the gap between the fifteen Sports Representatives and the four Sports Council members. Siddharth defended his statement by saying, ‘If we have more force to make iBOSM efficient, why can’t we do that?’.
OTHER QUESTIONS
The chess team captain raised the point that many of his players are not able to attend outstation tournaments due to the lack of funding. He suggested that he would be ‘happier’ if, instead of sponsoring a new event—inter-BITS—those funds were transferred to cover the cost of outstation chess tournaments so that the best chess players could represent BITS. Siddharth promised to discuss the matter with the Director.
A question was raised asking why instead of sponsoring the inter-BITS tournament, the Director did not consider entirely sponsoring outstation tournaments, where the competition and exposure are higher. Siddharth answered that the inter-BITS tournament was a way to integrate all three sister campuses, and they could have multiple teams from one campus to increase competition. Another person wanted to know if the introduction of an inter-BITS tournament would reduce the footfall in BOSM. Siddharth agreed that footfall might decrease to a certain extent; people might prefer inter-BITS as the institute would entirely fund it.
When questioned about the introduction of more awards, he reasoned that introducing awards like “Rookie of the Year” and “MVP” would improve participation. He added that these awards would consist of a certificate and a trophy.
He was then asked to elaborate on a point; he said that he planned to introduce lights on the field to increase the practice time so that the girls’ football team did not miss out on practice. An alternate solution wherein the girls’ team would get the frisbee field for was proposed by the Sports Secretary due to lack of resources.
Siddharth was asked about his plan to install cricket practice nets. He said that the practice nets would ‘save a lot of human effort and time’ and that a budget can be set aside for the same. Siddharth was also questioned about hiring coaches for sports teams, to which he replied that all teams would be getting camp coaches. He reassured the Sports Secretary that he had spoken to the Chief Warden and the amount would not be taken out of the sports budget.
Siddharth’s response to the question regarding the installation of new lights on the hockey field was that he had spoken to the Sports-in-charge and lights would be installed in the upcoming four months.
Another question was whether anyone would want to watch matches live. Siddharth answered that some people might watch the live broadcasts to find out about the competition and infrastructure. A point was raised that the participants might have privacy concerns. He replied that the participants would be informed beforehand, and if someone raises an issue, that particular event would not be recorded.
Responding to the question of whether a team would have to pay for recording events live, Siddharth said, ‘Recording events on a mobile phone was free, and DVM would do it for free.’ He was asked about the budget of the video camera required for live broadcasting, to which he replied that they already have a video camera.
He was then asked about the source of funds for hiring a health centre trainer. He replied by saying that the Institute would hire a staff member on a semester-wise basis, and the funds would not be appropriated from the sports budget. He added that he had talked to the Chief Warden about this.
In his concluding statement, Siddharth said that he had confirmed the feasibility of all his initiatives with the Chief Warden and the previous Sports Council. He planned to bring those initiatives into action as soon as possible. Finally, an SFC member thanked everyone and announced that the elections would be held on Friday, April 3, at 9:00 PM. The results were later declared, and Siddharth Malik was elected Sports Secretary of the Sports Union 2021.